07 May 2009

Program Helps High School Dropouts Re-start Their Educations

Gateway to College Network is replicating Oregon program nationally

Gateway to College plans to expand to 50 partner programs within the next five years to seven years.

By Jeffrey Thomas
Staff Writer

Washington — Kids drop out of high school for a variety of reasons: Some are teen parents and have jobs and family responsibilities, while others suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness or abuse. Some are just starting to learn English. Some are not interested in what high school has to offer or see it as irrelevant to their lives.

No matter the reason, returning to high school is not easy. Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon, puts these high school dropouts into a college program that provides a challenging academic environment and offers much support. Students can earn their high school diploma as well as earn credits for a college degree.

The program, Gateway to College, has been so successful that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided funding beginning in 2003 to replicate it around the United States. Other foundations now also provide support. The national network today includes 17 colleges nationwide with another seven in training and set to begin serving students in the fall of 2009.

Gateway to College is a scholarship program for at-risk youth, 16 to 20 years old, who have dropped out of school or are on the verge of dropping out. School districts in partnership with community colleges also provide funding.

“In a given community there needs to be a range of legitimate options for young people that fits their needs rather than their having to fit themselves to an institution,” says Nick Mathern, Gateway’s director of new program development. “We need to have legitimate and high-stakes, challenging alternatives for students who haven’t previously experienced academic success.”

Gateway to College tries to engage students who are disengaged, taking them at whatever point they left off with their educations, Mathern said.

It’s not just a question of providing courses that fill the gaps in a student’s transcript, although that is part of it. Some students need free bus passes or they won’t be able to reach the campus. Others need child care for their family. Some need meals because they don’t have money for food.

Gateway to College is a scholarship program for youth who have dropped out of school or are on the verge of dropping out.

One key to the Gateway approach is the required “foundation term,” when students, in addition to taking reading, writing and math, also take a college survival-and-success class in which they learn how to take notes effectively, study for tests and juggle school, work and family life.

“We start our students all together for one semester so they can develop a sense of community and understand that other people are in this with them. And then after that … we’re going to help them integrate into the general college,” Mathern said. “So ours does not feel like a high school; it feels like a program that is located within a college, and students will come back to our offices to receive some of our services, but their education happens just on the college campus.”

Of those who succeeded in getting their high school diploma as of 2008, the average student had achieved 42 of the 60 credits needed for an associate’s degree, typically granted in a two-year college program.

Portland Community College cites as one of its success stories Leah Gibson, a girl with a part Lakota Sioux (American Indian) and part Persian background, who became addicted to drugs and alcohol as a teen and dropped out of three different high schools by the age of 16.

Gibson not only completed her high school diploma via Gateway to College, but became student body president and student commencement speaker, and earned her associate of arts degree — all while working two jobs to support her family, volunteering in a variety of capacities and mentoring American Indian high school students.

“A lot of students tell us they didn’t leave high school because they were academically unable but because they were academically uninterested,” Mathern said. “One of the reasons Gateway to College is inspiring for many students and makes them reconsider their educational future is because college courses feel like they are a part of their life.”

The Gateway to College National Network plans to expand to 50 partner programs within the next five to seven years, starting between three and seven new programs each year, Mathern said.

“We’re looking to work with partners who are interested in providing a path to college for students others have given up on in terms of education. They’re going to need something from our community one way or the other. We want them to have family-wage employment throughout their lifetime rather than come back and need to depend on the community for services.”

For more information on the Gateway to College Network, see the program’s Web site.